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Boudreau: ‘We can’t win a lot of games if we only score two goals’

Winnipeg Jets v Minnesota Wild

ST PAUL, MN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Bruce Boudreau of the Minnesota Wild looks on during the game against Winnipeg Jets on October 15, 2016 at Xcel Energy Center in St Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

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Remember back in October when the Minnesota Wild were winning a bunch of games with a really high shooting percentage?

Well, that’s not happening anymore. In fact, just once in their eight games this month have they scored more than two goals. Saturday against Colorado, they put 43 shots on Calvin Pickard and still lost, 3-2.

The Wild actually led Saturday’s game 2-0 lead after two periods, only for the Avs to score three times in the first 10 minutes of the final frame.

“We stopped playing,” goalie Devan Dubnyk told reporters. “I don’t know what happened. That’s not like us. Things are going to happen, and they might get one or two, but we just stopped playing in our end. I don’t know if we thought it was going to be an easy third with the way the game was going, but we had a pretty good game going and that’s a waste of a game.”

And so, tonight in Dallas, the Wild will have some new lines. Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, and Eric Staal will form a first line; Mikko Koivu will center a second line between Tyler Graovac and Charlie Coyle; the trio of Jason Zucker Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula and Jason Pominville will be back together as a third line; and Jason Zucker, Zack Mitchell and Chris Stewart will round things out on the fourth line.

“We can’t win a lot of games if we only score two goals,” coach Bruce Boudreau said, per the Star Tribune. “I just think maybe some guys are getting stale with some other linemates … I’m a pretty patient guy when it comes to making lines, but I thought we could give this a try.”

The Wild have a tough week, schedule-wise. After tonight’s game in Dallas, they return home to host Winnipeg and Pittsburgh, and then it’s back on the road again for games in St. Louis and western Canada.

The Wild’s 3-5-0 record in November has already cost them in the standings. No longer in the top three of the Central Division, they’re barely in the Western Conference’s first wild-card spot, with San Jose, Dallas and Nashville lurking.